Editorial: Here's how Michael Madigan browbeats Illinois

We keep wondering when Democrats in the Illinois House — forlorn little mushrooms on whom Speaker Michael Madigan regularly dumps his putrid embarrassments — will decide they've had enough of self-serving-antics-by-Mike.

Maybe never. Maybe they're breathlessly seduced by the campaign money he gives to them and the cozy district lines he bestows on them. Or maybe they draw perverse pride from hobnobbing with clout, even if that means marching in subservient humiliation as his dupes.

Then again, maybe the sorry consequences for Illinois citizens of Madigan's 44 years in Springfield — witness your broke and broken state — are sparking some dim awareness within his caucus: Even as his legislative giveaways to cronies drove Illinois toward financial ruin, Dear Leader still obsessed on rigging government decisions to help his political toadies. Have we all, um, been chumped?

Tuesday's Tribune, with its scoop from statehouse reporter Ray Long on a secret document that exposes more of Madigan's patronage MO, should have citizens asking whether the way to weaken Madigan is to elect fewer House members who'll vote for him as speaker. So if you see one of the mushrooms, bend over and ask if he or she is ready to outgrow Madigan's muck. Ask if he or she thinks it's time for a speaker who would rather fix Illinois than devote so much frantic energy to manipulating jobs, promotions and raises for all those political toadies.

Long's account unveiled a previously hidden report to the Legislative Ethics Commission from the legislature's watchdog after last summer's scandal at Metra, the commuter rail agency. Then-Inspector General Thomas Homer shows the rest of us how Madigan intimidates people who rely on his good graces for their funding:

•Meet the Metra chairwoman who enters Madigan's Capitol office to discuss state issues and leaves with a Post-it note bearing the names of two workers Madigan wants to see promoted.

•Watch a Metra lobbyist who had been a longtime Madigan aide leave Madigan's office with two resumes.

•Read Homer's conclusion that while "insufficient evidence" existed to say Madigan had violated state laws: "(Madigan) should have realized, given his influential position, that by making the requests at the conclusion of meetings with Metra officials to discuss funding and other legislative issues, he would be creating reciprocal expectations. This unhealthy situation was exacerbated by the subsequent communications to Metra by the speaker or persons associated with him inquiring as to the state of the promotion requests when favorable action was not forthcoming."

Homer, a former Fulton County state's attorney, Democratic state representative and appellate court judge, left his job as legislative inspector general last week. The Legislative Ethics Commission — four Republicans and four Democrats — didn't vote to make his report public. We don't know how our Tribune colleague Long obtained a copy; his story said Homer wouldn't comment on it.

But when Madigan's office crowed in April that Homer had concluded his investigation of the speaker, Homer responded: "A decision to close an investigation based on insufficient evidence does not constitute a Good Housekeeping seal of approval or a best practices award."

Recall how the Metra scandal unfolded as a running expose of alleged patronage interference from Madigan and other Illinois politicians: In April 2013, then-Metra CEO Alex Clifford wrote an internal memo in which he said Metra board members feared that his refusal to go along with Madigan's personnel requests would have damaging repercussions. The board soon ousted Clifford, giving him a severance package worth up to $871,000. Then all hell broke loose, leading to a partial overhaul of Metra.

No one, though, has been able to eradicate Madigan's patronage schemes, which cheat job applicants and employees without clout by shoving his favored candidates to the head of lines for jobs, promotions and pay raises.

That's in large measure because Madigan, like the wizard behind the curtain, frightens so many people — fellow Democrats, public officials, even voters worried that when Madigan is gone, their mopey brothers-in-law will lose state jobs. If Clifford hadn't pushed back against attempts to abuse Metra, many of Madigan's injustices would have stayed where he likes them: in statehouse shadows.

Recall, too, that in January the Tribune chronicled how hundreds of public employees in state and local governments provide election muscle for Madigan, donate to his campaign funds, register voters for him and circulate candidate petitions for him. Wonder why?

During his 44 years in Springfield, Madigan has helped engineer the impossible-to-afford retirement benefits that rewarded those public workers. Madigan also advanced state budgets that didn't fund those exorbitant obligations.

Last week the Illinois Supreme Court declared that the state constitution says public retirees' health benefits can't be cut — essentially ruling that taxpayers are stuck with the financial debacle that Madigan and several governors and Senate presidents have imposed on the people of Illinois.

That debacle is Madigan's legacy. That and a shabby culture of government-as-patronage-machine for the friends of Michael Madigan.

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